Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan has lashed out at politicians for delays to the Telstra separation legislation that won’t see it considered until next year.

With the contentious Competition and Consumer Safeguards Bill now delayed until federal Parliament resumes next year, O’Sullivan delivered what he called a “brutally simple” message – pass the bill to separate Telstra as soon as possible, and get the National Broadband Network built.

“The National Broadband Network is ‘do or die’ for competition in fixed telecommunications,” the Optus CEO told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event. “I’m very concerned that the debate on the NBN is getting stuck. Stuck as the debate rages between different sides of politics as to what to do, or what form it should take, and basically it’s stuck as the politicians argue and as Telstra capitalises on that to encourage further delay.”

“My message today is going to brutally simple, and that is let’s pass the legislation quickly, and let’s build Australia’s NBN now,” he said.

The federal government had hoped to see the bill passed on the Senate’s final sitting day last Thursday, but O’Sullivan said it had become “collateral damage” as the debate focussed on emissions trading legislation. “The decisions being made – or not being made – today will decide whether we join the world in taking advantage of these benefits, or whether we watch it from the sidelines,” he said.

“A key piece of legislation which would allow this... to evolve has been stuck in the Senate, held over now until at the earliest February 2010.”

O’Sullivan argued against commentators proposing that the bill was unnecessary. “[It’s] interesting, as somebody who wants the industry to grow and succeed, to watch in the last few weeks some pro-Telstra supporters have argued publicly that this delay is actually a good thing. In fact, some extreme parties have even argued that the legislation is unnecessary,” he said, adding that Telstra should not be allowed to seal a deal on separation without parliamentary involvement.

“[The Bill] will make sure that it is Parliament that sets the parameters for any deal that done by Telstra with the government on the NBN. We think it is critical that Telstra is not allowed to do a backroom deal free from visibility, transparency and accountability to the Australian public. Telstra must not be allowed to escape from parliamentary oversight,” he said.

$25M PRICETAG ON HFC ROLLOUT: O’Sullivan also announced that Optus’ planned HFC upgrade to support DOCSIS 3.0 would come at a pricetag of A$25m. Optus deems 1.4 million homes ‘serviceable’ on its cable networks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and O’Sullivan said the upgrade would mean HFC “can carry the latest technology which will deliver speeds of up to 100Mbps, which will make it a high speed broadband network to rival the best in the world.”

The A$25m pricetag is not even a tenth of Telstra’s A$300m DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade which only upgraded the company’s Melbourne HFC network. While Optus has previously expressed its desire to sell of the HFC asset to NBNCo, O’Sullivan did not say whether the upgrade was being undertaken as a sweetener for a sell-off. “The decision to upgrade the cable network stands in its own right,” he said. “It’s a good thing to do, all of our capital investments are always made with a view to being viable... we’re very confident with the upgrade we can sell high speed broadband to customers and get a high uptake and get a return on the investment.”